PC for a Student

[JohnBradshaw]

Hi

I was wondering if anyone can suggest a pc for a student starting university this year (me!).

What I would like is:

Win XP Home
MS Works or MS Office Student

I already have:
CD-RW
Laser Printer
Scanner

I really don't know how much I want to spend but I think it should be less then £1000

Thanks for your help!

 

[muckshifter]

Hello John, welcome.

You will indeed get a very good system for under £1,000 … in fact you should get what you need for under £800.

My personal opinion would be to “build your own” however, if that sounds a little daunting then look around for a “local builder” … I would stay clear of ComCRAP, HewlitCRAPARD, CRAPARD bell … heck … I would stay clear of any “testicle” company … but then that’s me.

Don't go for MS Works, although cheaper, get Office ... even Office 97 is better than Works.

 

[Eric Portelance]

I'd also build my own. You can get an Athlon XP 1800+ for a good price, and the performance is great. Toss in a KT333 chipset (or KT266A, if you like), and you're set to go.

 

[wildone]

You better watch colleges though,they are very biased here,if you read a page of a local college it specifically says the minimum spec for a PC is a 1 GHZ pentium III comp,and that AMD isnt fast enough,it makes me angry in a sense that they are so biased for intel,the computer store also owned by the college is way over priced also,40.00 to install a floppy drive is so much of a jk ,lol.

wildone

 

[wildone]

here is the exact copy quote.

Footnotes
The requirement is for an Intel Pentium III. An Intel Celeron, AMD, or other CPU may not perform satisfactorily with some software.


Most new computers have built-in Ethernet networking capabilities. If your computer does not, we suggest that you purchase the network card (installation included) from UTÕs Office of Information Technology after you arrive on campus. (contact the help desk at 865-974-9900 or (e-mail address removed).


Some wireless cards will not work on the UT wireless network. We strongly recommend that you purchase the card (installation included) from UTÕs Office of Information Technology after you arrive on campus. (Contact the help desk at 865-974-9900 or (e-mail address removed).


Windows XP Professional or Windows 2000 (Service Pack 2) are acceptable. Do not purchase Windows XP Home Edition or Windows ME. They are not compatible with some programs used at UT.


The most common file system is the NTFS system required above. However, other file systems are available and should be avoided because of compatibility problems.


Students may purchase Office XP Professional from the UT Computer Store for $64. This is significantly less than you would pay elsewhere.


If you use the XP Professional operating system, you must use the newest Matlab version (version 6.1). Older versions of Matlab will work with Windows 2000, but they are not compatible with XP Professional. Matlab can be purchased through the UT Computer Store at a substantial discount.


Here is the link
to thepage with what I posted above
http://www.engr.utk.edu/coe/compreq.htm

wildone

 

[Adam]

Try duh duh duuuuuh!..... Dixons

I wouldn't normally suggest buying from the high street because of the usual markup in price but I've just seen a deal in Dixons where you get a 1.8GHz Celeron with Windows XP, DVD/CD Writer, Scanner, Printer and Digital Camera package for just £699. Checked it out with Ian, the founder of PC Review and he thought it was a good deal. Sure the printer and scanner are fairly budget but for under £700 it's the best pre-made deal I've seen and you don't need worry about damaging parts from building it yourself if you don't know what you're doing.

The package is on the Dixons website, www.dixons.co.uk and is called eMachines 370 package.

Sound like one of those over-eager workers from Dixons don't I!

 

[muckshifter]

Adam

... no disrespect to you but an eMachine is a heap of junk.

How would you like an MSI KT7 pro2, AMD XP 1800+, 512 DDR, 60gig HD, gF4 mx440, 48x12x48 Lite-On CDRW, DVD, XPpro OS ... for £600 inc vat.

Just call in my workshop to pick yours up ... oh and you can have it all in black.

BUILD YOUR OWN
and save ££££

 

[wildone]

I have to agree with mucks on this,my dealer cost for an 1600 eMachines Athlon XP 1600+ 128MB 40GB CD-RW Win XP $353.00

so for 100 more you can have a pretty nice scanner and printer,and the camera's are between 20 and 50.00,add a dvd for around 20 ,there is basically the same system with a little better performance cpu wise for under 500.00 USD,I could build this system for even less.eMachines always in every single system I have see are usually almost maxed out,example,the 1.8 cele probably wont go higher then 2ghz or so upgrade wise and everything is onboard and no agp slot,so your kinda stuck video card wise.

wildone

 

[kristel]

Something else to think of:

Ever thought of a laptop? I have a Sony Vaio (just bought it recently for less than £1000). It's an FX..something Athlon XP(m) 1400+ 20GBhdd and 256mb of ram running WinXP home.

Not bad for games... can run Jedi Knight 2 in low detail quite well.... but I wouldn't want to ply UT2003 on it That's what my main PC if for

Advantage of a laptop is you can take it into lectures and record them so you can play back the bits you sleep through